By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Eskom’s general executive for generation, Rhulani Mathebula, has resigned from his position and will leave the utility at the end of November 2022.
The company, which produces about four-fifths of the country’s power, has now suffered at least five high-level resignations in 2022 while battling to improve the performance of its generation fleet during SA’s worst year of load-shedding to date.
Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer announced the development at the start of the power utility’s latest state of the system update on Tuesday.
Mathebula has been acting in the position since Philip Dukashe’s resignation in May 2022.
He had previously acted as Eskom’s group executive for generation before Dukashe’s appointment in April 2021.
The outages have curbed South Africa’s economic growth.
Eskom implemented 5 761 gigawatt hours of power cuts – locally known as loadshedding – through September, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research said in a report on Monday. That compares with 2 521 gigawatt hours of cuts last year, which was a record at the time.
Oberholzer thanked Mathebula for his service to the utility and the country as a whole and wished him well with his future endeavours.
He did not divulge more details on the reason for Mathebula’s resignation.
Oberholzer added that Mathebula’s successor would be announced in due course, pending the relevant procurement processes.
In the interim, Lethabo Power Station general manager Thomas Conradie has taken over the role.
Conradie’s LinkedIn profile shows he has held various managerial positions at Eskom since joining the utility 23 years ago.
At Lethabo, he has been the general power station manager since 2014.
Before that, he was a power station manager at the Matla and Kriel plants, and a maintenance manager at the Majuba Power Station.
His list of qualifications includes a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stellenbosh University and an MBA from Unisa.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced emergency measures earlier in the year to address the energy crisis, but plans to add capacity and buying excess electricity from companies are running behind schedule.
Eskom has said that as much as 6 000 megawatts of additional capacity is needed to stabilise the grid and has long called for more private generation.